According to data from the Ministry of Citizenship and Immigration, the highest levels of admissions in the parents and grandparents category took place in 1993 at 42,743.

The 50,000 applications will go along way toward reducing the backlog of applications, which stood at about 165,000 with wait times stretching to “an unacceptable” eight years when Ottawa pushed the pause button and stopped taking sponsorship applications for parents and grandparents, Kenney said.

The ministry is currently redesigning the family unification program for parents and grandparents, but details of what Kenney called the new and improved program are not ready yet.

“The program had become virtually dysfunctional — clogged with backlogs and unacceptable wait times,” Kenney said at a news conference in Toronto.

Kenney added that he expects the backlog to be cut in half by 2014 when the new reframed reunification program begins. And wait times will be cut to three and a half years, he said.

Ottawa has held town hall meetings, roundtables with stakeholders, focus groups, and an online survey to get feedback on how to redesign the program.

It has already launched a 10-year Super Visa allowing parents and grandparents to make temporary visits to Canada. According to Kenney, more than 10,000 of these Super Visas have been issued since December 2011.

Other changes being examined include: raising income requirements of sponsors; adopting “the balance of family test” where parents and grandparents must have at least half of their children residing permanently in Canada; and limiting applications to those in “exceptional” circumstances.

An announcement about the changes to the family reunification program is expected sometime early next year.

“We have a commitment to family reunification,” Kenney said.

For the parents and grandparents reunification program to be sustainable, it must be redesigned to avoid future backlogs, Kenney added.

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